France’s top military space official has warned of a sharp rise in “hostile or unfriendly” actions in orbit, particularly from Russia, underscoring growing Western concern over the security of satellites that underpin both military operations and daily life.
Major General Vincent Chusseau, who took command of French Space Command last month, told Reuters that adversaries have stepped up methods of disrupting satellites since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Techniques such as jamming, cyberattacks and lasers have become “commonplace”, he said in his first international media interview.
“The Ukraine conflict shows space is now a fully-fledged operational domain,” Chusseau said.
France, Europe’s largest public spender on space, has previously accused Moscow of shadowing satellites. In 2018, Paris alleged that a Russian “prowler” spacecraft attempted to spy on a Franco-Italian military satellite. Russia denies placing weapons in orbit, saying it opposes any militarisation of space.
Other Western powers have echoed Chusseau’s warning. Britain’s Space Command chief, Major General Paul Tedman, said last week the threat to satellites was “growing in scale, sophistication and speed”, while Canada’s space commander Brigadier General Christopher Horner cited more than 200 anti-satellite weapons now in orbit.
Germany is also expanding its space defences, planning a multi-orbit constellation by 2029, according to General Michael Traut. France, meanwhile, is boosting resilience in low-Earth orbit as commercial mega-constellations such as Elon Musk’s Starlink proliferate.
Paris has also signalled it may develop capabilities to “deny, prohibit and disrupt” adversaries, a rare acknowledgement of possible offensive action in space.
“The aim is not only to see and understand,” Chusseau said, “but also to act.”
